I have recently gotten a job offer but they are saying I have to get a police clearance from the US. It has to be notarized and certified/stamped by the US State Department. Never heard of anything like it.

California is my home state so how are things done there? Anyone with any experience? Could you describe the steps?

If it's anything like other places Joe, you just pop in to your local station and ask them to write up a report with a police dept stmp that says you don't have a record, but it could all be different from when i first came.

Apostille is a French word just meaning certification. It is the legalisation of any document for international use (eg. birth certificate, degree)
It only confirms that the signature, seal or stamp on the certificate is genuine. It does not mean that the certificate's contents are correct.

This is NOT the same as police clearance, which is a check to see if you have any criminal record or convictions.

In the UK, it is called a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check, and all teachers must have one, or anybody working with children or vulnerable people. In the US, the name of this may be different - just police clearance certificate perhaps?

You need to get a police clearance that is "certified" to be authentic. If a country is a signature to the Hague convention, this certification is done by getting an Apostille, but since Kuwait is not a signature to the Hague, you need to get the clearance "authenticated"----meaning, gettting it "stamped" to prove its real. Hopefully, the following will help you:

1. Go to your local police department and tell them you need to obtain a police clearance and that you need it notarized. Depending on your county, they may refer you to the sheriff's office to get the clearance.

2. Once you have the clearance, you need to get it notarized--most police departments have someone there to do this. By getting it notarized, they are "swearing" that the signatures on the document are authentic. If there is no one at the police department who can notarize--which is unlikely but does happen--then you take the clearance to a notary public in your city/county to have it done.

3. After getting it the clearance notarized in your city/county, you need to get it notarized at the state level. (In this process, the state is authenticating that the notary public who authenticated your clearance is a real notary public.) Here is the link on how to get the state authentication in CA: http://www.sos.ca.gov/business/notary/authentication.htm

4. Now, after getting your state's authentification, you need to get the State Department to authenticate California's stamp! Here is the link to do that: http://www.state.gov/m/a/auth/

5. THEN You should have the Kuwait Embassy authenticate the State Department seal!! (If you enclose an prepaid envelope and instructions the State deparment will send the documents to the Kuwait embassy---instructions should be listed on the State Department website.)

6. Finally, when you get to Kuwait, your school should take you to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to authenticate the Kuwait Embassy stamp!

In the end, you should have a fully authenticated police clearance in your hands! It should be authenticated from your police department or city/county, by the state of California, by the State Deparment, by the Kuwait embassy, and by the Kuwait Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A very silly process--and time consuming--and you pay at each step.
I would also strongly suggest that at the same time, you should get your college degrees authenticated--that way you save on postage, etc. At some point--or at least you should--be asked to provide authenticated copies of your degrees. The process is the exact same--only you start from your college office instead of the police department. If you went to college in a different state than CA, contact your college--order authenticated transcripts--have them authenticated at that state's level--and then send off with your police clearance to the State Department in DC.

Yes, a big hassle, but one good thing is that once this is done--if you go to work in another country---for example, UAE or Saudi---then you just take your fully authenticated documents to the UAE or Saudi Embassy in Kuwait---they authenitcate the Kuwait Ministry of Foreign Affairs stamp--and you are "good to go". (At least thats what I did!)

Hope this helps!
P.S. If you are married or have kids, you may want to throw your marriage certificate and kids' birth certificates in and get them "done" at the same time--never know when you might need them--just at thought.

2. Once you have the clearance, you need to get it notarized--most police departments have someone there to do this. By getting it notarized, they are "swearing" that the signatures on the document are authentic. If there is no one at the police department who can notarize--which is unlikely but does happen--then you take the clearance to a notary public in your city/county to have it done.

This is pretty much the standard procedure except that if the police don't have a notary... how could you get it notarized somewhere else? For a notary to notarize it, it has to be signed in front of him or her. I doubt the cop will come with you. Or do you mean adding the piece of papers saying that "it is all true" and you sign and that signature gets notarized?

Also, with university papers some countries in the Gulf require that your fancy cert be "certified" rather than the sensible transcript option... (waste of time as one could still have produced the cert at Kinkos).

The easiest (and cheapest) way to do this is to do it in DC if you are on the East Coast... can be done in a day and a half within a few blocks... not exactly walkable blocks, but the subway works. You will need a car to get to the embassies. But, step one is that you must find a DC notary to start the process.

This is pretty much the standard procedure except that if the police don't have a notary... how could you get it notarized somewhere else? For a notary to notarize it, it has to be signed in front of him or her. I doubt the cop will come with you. Or do you mean adding the piece of papers saying that "it is all true" and you sign and that signature gets notarized?

As I said:

Quote:

If there is no one at the police department who can notarize--which is unlikely but does happen--

The few cases that I am aware of that there was not a notary at the police department (one of my sons being one of them)--the people were directed by the police department to a near-by notary that had the authorized signatures and stamps on file. In my son's case, the notary actually placed a call to ensure that the authorized person has signed it... she checked against what she had on file--and she notarized it. The state level offices, and of course the State Department, authenticate notary public signatures without the person being in front of them--so obviously there is a system for this situataions. Again, overwhelmingly, there will be a notary in the police department.

I am unware of any place that requires a transcipt to be "certified" and the various Kuwait ministries (education, private education, foreign affairs) do not require this. As far as I am aware, in order to prove the validity of a document--or more correctly as Dedicated pointed out to prove the validity of the stamps/seals/signatures, it is either given an Apostille (which I believe is done at the state level in America) or needs to go through the authentification process---depending on if the country involved is a signatory of the Hague Convention.

I am unware of any place that requires a transcipt to be "certified" and the various Kuwait ministries (education, private education, foreign affairs) do not require this. As far as I am aware, in order to prove the validity of a document--or more correctly as Dedicated pointed out to prove the validity of the stamps/seals/signatures, it is either given an Apostille (which I believe is done at the state level in America) or needs to go through the authentification process---depending on if the country involved is a signatory of the Hague Convention.

Whether you call it "authenticated, certified, or apostilled" it is the same meaningless process which proves only that you had an ID to prove who you were to a notary public. And all the rest of the stamps and ribbons and seals are merely to separate you from your money.

No point in wasting the money to have ANYTHING authenticated/certified/apostilled in your home country as when you hand your documents into your school to be approved by the ministry all this has to be done again from Kuwait, for your first ever work visa. There on in ( visa transfers) not needed.

Just bring your original degree certificate and i bet a simple clearance letter from a loal police station ( which is what 2 British teachers i know did two years ago) will be sufficient.

First, you have to get your criminal records check, and then you have to take it to your state department to get it apostilled.

No matter what you do, you can bet somebody among your colleagues will do a check on your behind your back anyway. It's easy to find out anything on anybody these days if you know which websites to go to. If your internet detective sees you're clean, you probably won't need that CRC.

Police Clearance? Well you can do that at your local police department. But some police station don't require fingerprints checks, it's done by your name and birth date. I would ask the requesting agency/your employer, what they want. Most jobs perfer you get a fingerprint background check. If they require that, you need to go through a live scan process. It's more accurate that way.

STATE BACKGROUND CHECK IN CALIFORNIA:
In California, it's done by live scan. You take your fingerprint electronically. The information (your name, birth date, fingerprints) get submitted to the Department of Justice. It matches up with the database of all the fingerprints to see if you've been arrested. Then you get a letter in the mail and that's your STATE background check for California.
No record = 2-7 day processing.
If you have a Record = 2 weeks - months processing.

NATIONWIDE BACKGROUND CHECK:
If they require a FBI background check, that takes 13 weeks now, budget cuts. Some people get lucky and received it in 4-6 weeks. Before it was only 1 week. You do that, old school, fingerprint on a fingerprint card or if you go to the live scan, they can do it electronically. Doing it electronically is best because the ink doesn't smear. This part, send 2 fingerprint cards. WHY? If the FBI can't see your prints, you're waiting another 13 weeks to get your results 'cause you have to mail in another set of prints.

So ask your requesting agency on what type of background check they want.

When you get your background check, then you need to get an apostille, it's actually called authentication cause Kuwait is not part of the Hague Convention and it goes through a chain of authentication for Kuwait. If you don't know what you're doing contact these guys. www.apostillepros.com

They provide state background check - live scan, notary, apostille and translation. If time is of the essence go with them. They can get things done fairly quickly.

JoeRomano wrote:

I have recently gotten a job offer but they are saying I have to get a police clearance from the US. It has to be notarized and certified/stamped by the US State Department. Never heard of anything like it.

California is my home state so how are things done there? Anyone with any experience? Could you describe the steps?

Thank you. So many answers that do not contain anything concrete but the last one is good. I have used apostillepros.com. It costs about $1000 but it is a necessary evil. It rids you of the necessity of a gruelling and nerve racking, gratuitously delayed procedure or mailing and remailing ad nauseum. Thank you!